Panama Poisoning Deaths – The China Connection
Panama Mystery Epidemic
Last October, like resident Panamanians and concerned visitors, I was really shaken up by the scary news headlines tracking the mounting number of persons dying from a mysterious illness. There were reported symptoms of kidney failure, nervous system shut down, partial paralysis and eventually death. This resulted in over 300 unconfirmed deaths to date.
Soon it was discovered that the culprit was a cough syrup that was poisoning persons. Investigations revealed that the lethal medication contained a poisonous chemical. Health officials went all out to warn residents to stop using this cough syrup and also to return, or discard the unconsumed portions. While all this was going on, it became clear that most of the confirmed deaths linked to the poisoning were of persons who receive free and or heavily subsidized medication from the Seguro Sociál de Panamá (Panama´s Social Security).
The hunt was on to find out who was behind the possible ´terrorist attack´. Ok that part was my invention. No one mentioned the word terrorist. Although if it were certain parts of the world, we would not ´rule out the threat of terror´. So there was no search for a terrorist, but the nation was terrified.
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Enterprising Chinese Capitalism
Over the past weekend, New York Times journalists Renwick McLean and Brent McDonald broke the story of a poisonous trail of death from Panama to China.
The story revealed the dangerous state of affairs in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry. It has been discovered that some enterprising Chinese caught on to the fact that it is cheaper to replace glycerin with diethylene glycol. The latter is an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. Clearly not for human consumption.
So while not a classified terrorist threat, this reality is being seriously downplayed. If the NY Times report is true, then their claim that this Chinese enterprise being responsible for thousands of under-reported (and non-reported) deaths is way past alarming. This chemical has been linked to deaths in the US from as far back as 1930´s, then 1992 in , and 1995 in Haiti! Mass poisonings were also reported in Bangladesh, Argentina, Nigeria and twice in India.
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International Health Risk
The World Health Organization has dubbed this a Global issue that must be handled globally. After their investigation into the India diethylene glycol mass poisoning in 1998, the WHO reported:-
chemicals required for production of pharmaceuticals can become contaminated, resulting in unsafe pharmaceutical products with grave dangers for the patients who use them. The most often documented example of the above happening is the incorporation of diethylene glycol (DEG) into pharmaceutical preparations. Ingestion of DEG may affect the central nervous system, liver and kidneys, and can lead to death through kidney failure. The latest large-scale, well-documented instance of this happening was in Haiti in 1996, where some one hundred children died after taking contaminated cough syrup, but similar accidents have occurred previously in many countries, resulting in a total of at least 500 unnecessary deaths during the last ten years.
I believe this is where I insert a very juvenile, Duh! So this is 2007 and we have done what?
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Ignorant Consumers + Profiteering Pharmaceutical Industries
I feel “dunce.” That´s a Jamaican term for when you are not the brightest crayon in the box. In fact you are not even a crayon and you don´t even know it! So that should tell you how I feel.
But seriously, how on earth are we to keep up with all that is wrong with sections of the pharmaceuticals manufacturing industry. How are we to keep up with the un-declared or blatantly misrepresented ingredients in what we are consuming as medicine? Well I´ll save that rant for another time. Let us now see what is going to happen as a result of these findings.
Come on, have hope….what was that? If nothing has been done since 1992 why should we believe that anything will be done now? Have ye no faith in the power of ´WE´. (yes grammatically difficult I know). But seriously, WE the consumers need to become more informed about what we are buying and consuming. WE need to be more demanding of accountability from those who we put in charge of our lives. And ok..let me quit cause I hear an argument brewing.
Until the next rant in keeping with this subject.
Dunce Marvia
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May 10th, 2007 at 3:09 am
This is indeed frightening in a day an dage where because of economic hardship people look for the best price. We just now need to scrutinize extra carefully everything we consume.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Frightening indeed Heather.
Wait until you hear the other story I have in store for another rant. I’ll post it next week.
I’m off attending a Retreat at Santa Clara. Will give you guys the details of that when I get back too.
Marvia
May 10th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Well we will never be able to keep track of all that stuff and we knew that and that is why we have regulatory bodies. We need to start putting people from regulatory bodies in jail when stuff like this happen. Lets not forget the wonderful people from these pharmaceutical companies. And when i say jail i mean hard labour!!!
Ok i admit that might not work cause the company is always gonna find a scapegoat, a ‘little man’ to take the fall, but geez man! Its crappy when these things happen!
Yes i totally believe in the power of WE. The sad thing is that at time it seem like the majority of the WE stand for What Ever, and dont care whats happening?
But still I believe there is hope in WE, Well-being Enablers
(when a come up wid a more appropriate acronym a share it )
Bless
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:13 pm
A shocking revelation and one that, with absolute needfulness, you have brought to our attention. How horrifying to include such a deadly ingredient. Well done for telling the story in an intelligent and even educational way (I like the bit about the word dunce. Thanks so much for your special feedback on my countdowntopublication blog. All the very best to you, Solomon.